


Tales Of The Ocean

by TheDragonHunter



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Because nobody else would do that for me, Canon Related, Drabble Collection, Gen, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, That's why I'm going to write it, The Heart's whispers put those in my head, The one fic nobody's asked for, more or less
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-01-20 01:05:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 30
Words: 5,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12421836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDragonHunter/pseuds/TheDragonHunter
Summary: The ocean holds enough stories to fill the whole sky. And there would even be some left for the Heart to whisper to those, who are willing to listen.





	1. The Sandcastle

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, that's exactly the kind of fic nobody's asked for, but I'm going to write it anyway, because nobody else is going to do this for me. The thing is, Dishonored universe has so many elements that perfectly match my own small obsessions. And when a being strictly connected to the ocean gave me the Heart that could whisper secrets and tales, it basically hit three of my sweet spots at once, so it didn't take long time for me to start having those little things floating in my head. Since I just really have to get them all out, I might as well share them with you - maybe they'll be a small pleasure for someone else.
> 
> All in all, it's just a series of tiny-tiny drabble-tales, taking place in Dishonored universe - some more, some less connected to the games, kind of things the Heart could tell you if it could share more of the stories the ocean hides.

The pair of them used to come to the beach, as children no older than the first spring flowers - they would build sandcastles and decorate them with small seashells, found in shallow water. She kept coming there when they grew up, to bid him farewell as he set sail. Once, he brought her a beautiful, white dress, and they married, with the ocean as their witness and their priest.

The nets were rough and heavy, and so became his hands. She was still coming to bid him farewell, but the boy she had loved, was the man that she feared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Original Characters]


	2. The Boatman

It all began with the girl, the one he fell in love with. Only after stealing her could the river lure him, and only then could she compell him, crawl under his skin and remain there, always echoing. As time passed, he began seeing lights and sleeping faces in the water. Was it the river trying to comfort him, or was it someone else - he did not know, nor did he wish to.

He never saw the face of his love, not until he was old and nothing but cracking bones, when he came to the river, seeking peace.

She embraced him ever so gently, letting him float away further than even she could reach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Samuel Beechworth
> 
> Inspired by one of the Heart's lines: 'Samuel Beechworth went to sea to forget a hopeless love. He succeeded.']


	3. The Night Of Old

They are laughing and dancing around bonfires, flames reaching into the dark sky. All men returned from the last fishing before the winter, so they thank the ocean, offering wreaths of sand grass and autumn poppy to the waves. A girl kisses her boy, smiling sweetly under his lips, a father hugs his little son, tosses him into the air and the child laughs, a glimpse of inhuman beauty on it's face, painted by fire and moon, and the quiet, eyeless ocean humms softly, calm and eager to share.

But it was long, long ago, forgotten holiday and forgotten night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Original Characters]


	4. The Heartless

They used to say that she was the most stunning girl to ever live, that she was like the full moon on the dark horizon, its light making all the stars look pale and miserable. Like the moon she pulled on the hearts, and like the moon little did she care - all she did was toying with them, feeding on their attention, laughing as she found them wanting, spoiled and bored and too beautiful not to become corrupted.  
Boys kept coming and going, each a disappointment, each with his heart too fragile. It took the heartless one to satisfy her and eyes as empty as the Void to match her soul. Oh, how fascinated they both were! Kisses stolen during great, masked balls, long, slender fingers, playing the piano next to hers in the room full of people, skin like cold marble, distant song of the ocean and smiles with too many teeth, how drunk with power she was, how drunk with attention! 

But time passed, and one of them began to ache for the heart the other could not give.

He felt her craving after he left, but it was a crave of a different kind than his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [The Outsider&Vera Moray
> 
> 'They call her Granny Rags. You wouldn't recognize her real name, or even the name of her family, but an Emperor begged for her hand once, and rich young men fought each other for her favor.']


	5. The Leviathan

She was one of the oldest leviathans, born in times of endless ocean and eyeless sky, relishing soft whispers of eternity in her veins, but her greatest joy was her daughter, one and only child for all days of her life. She was craddling her in the deep, singing songs of their kind, and her offspring was growing, ever so slowly.

She was still too small when the whalers came, too small to bring her to the slaughterhouse, so they threw her dead body into the ocean and sailed away, the last cry of her mother remaining with them forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Original Characters]


	6. The Bird Mother

A fair girl she was, fair and lighthearted, married to a boy she loved, with two beautiful children to cherish.  
She lost her good husband to the dry, ashy ground. Sadness does not kill, they said, so she lived on, smaller and softer, just by a tiny little bit.  
She lost her bold, firstborn daughter to a land so faraway, that it seemed like another world to her, distant and strange. Sad she was, yes, but sadness does not kill, they said, so she lived on, more pensive and quiet, but breathing steadily.  
The boy of hers, she now knew she was going to loose him as well. Her sweetest bird, she called him, and like a bird, once he'd been grown and clawed, he flew away from her hands, never to return.

Sadness does not kill, so they said, but the ocean just hummed softly, as if with laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Paloma Attano]


	7. The Playmate

She has always loved the ocean, with its dreamy songs and salty taste of the water, happy to spend all days at the shore while her brother was away on his duty. Once, she found a beuatiful, bone necklace, almost burried in the wet sand. It felt warm at touch and gave her a strange feeling of comfort and safety, just like those rare nights her brother would come back earlier and he would let her sleep with him, pressed to his side. She hid it in her pocket, like a little secret of her own.  
It was late, so very late when the boy appeared out of nowhere. She could not sleep and she was organizing a small tea party under her blanket, so she invited him to join. He seemed so surprised, as if nobody has ever asked for his company, but he sat with her and all of her dolls, with a small cup she gave him.  
He had to be some kind of a ghost, she thought. He could not drink the tea, his eyes were a bit scary and there was something very wrong with his smile, all too many teeth, but he knew the most beautiful stories she has ever heard and he would come to play with her every lonely night, staying until either she fell asleep or the dawn awoke.  
Once, she told him she was afraid of darkness. He told her that he was afraid of it too.

The next morning her brother found the necklace and he beat her dead, blood on his iron mask and tears underneath it. And than he followed her, wherever she had gone to.

Winter came early for the ocean that year, waves cold and shivering, as if with rage.

Or maybe it was weeping?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [The Outsider&Original Characters]


	8. The Whalesong

The song of the ocean haunted her ever since she remembered, endless wailing of the leviathans that planted fear in her bones and nightmares in her heart, black eyes watching her from within. She dreamt of fleeing, bound by the last remains of her family, bound by her duties, by her Empress, by her very own nature. It took her such a long time to free herself, even longer before she could sail away on a whaling ship.

Painfull freedom, yes, but oh, what a pleasure it was, to watch the leviathans bleed out, their wailing turning into blessed silence!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Callista Curnow
> 
> 'She dreams of freedom, and the decks of whaling ships fast after the beasts of sea! But alas, she is a woman.']


	9. The Caretaker

He has never belonged to anybody, nor did he have anything that would belong to him, not until that awfuly foggy night, when he found a wolfhound puppy, abandoned just like he himself was. It was such a weak, skinny creature, with brightly white fur of an accursed being, but he took care of it. He provided it a name and warmth and safety and a beating heart to comfort it when the night was darkest, and it grew strong and loving.

Loving enough to eat the boy in his sleep when the plague arrived from beyond the great ocean.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Original Characters]


	10. The Mask Maker

He was born weak and fragile, but with ambitions as great, as little his body was. What a bright mind he had, how brave ideas it bore! Endless flood of thoughts, of inventions, of theories, flashing through his brain like stars through the surface of the dark ocean, the constant urge to enrapture the world!

And so the world was enraptured with his one creation, with the mask that haunted him in his sleep almost every night, like a curse, punishment for his pride.

A true genious he was, but not for a thought of his own he was remembered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Piero Joplin]


	11. The Sailor

He was sixteen when he set sail, his mother long dead and his father lost at sea. And yes, he feared the ocean, its songs and whispers and endless deep hidden just beneath the surface, gentle lulling that seemed to be a threat rather than comfort, a sweet lie to put him to sleep and devour him whole. Oh, he did fear the ocean, he would never cease to, but he only saw the land fifty years later.

As the ship was almost reaching the shore, a giant wave washed him off the deck and the ocean kept him within forever, craddling his bones on cold currents until they became nothing but ash and salt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Original Characters]


	12. The Sleepless

The place itself was forlorn, lost somewhere between distant roaring of the city and soft humming of the river, belonging to neither of them. And it felt so good to be lost with it! To forget the past, to let the future float, remaining untouched by it for what seemed like forever, like ages coming and going unnoticed!  
Nights felt strange there, with tales of the faraway ocean and whispers of old charms echoing in cold air, vibrating under black, attentive sky. Sometimes, when she was waiting for her father to return, it seemed as if it was waiting with her, watching with empty eyes and it made her shiver, this presence that felt both like a craddle song and like cracking bones.

She could not sleep there, not until she asked her father if she could come to him those restless hours. From that night on, they both slept well, cuddled up to each other on hard mattress.

He would never know that before she came to his bedroom, she had heared him scream every night, and it felt as if her heart was going to break, each cry of his tearing her apart like claws and sharp fangs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Emily Kaldwin&Corvo Attano]


	13. The Blind

She was his sun, his moon and all of his stars, his most precious treasure, a crown he would wear to ravish the world just like she ravished him. When she wanted to dance, he would throw the greatest ball the city has ever seen, when she wanted a new dress, he would buy her so many, that twenty carriages were needed to deliver them, whatever she wanted he gave her, compelled by her beauty. For beautiful she was, yes, but not like a flower he wished to see her as, but like an open wound, like a sighthound - cold and indifferent, accepting the world's love with nothing but slight amusement and contempt.  
Sometimes, he had moments of doubt. He could sense something more in her, as if it was not just him she was toying with, as if it was not him she was trying to enthral, and he even felt some kind of pity, the same as he felt at the bottom of his heart for all boys, who ached for her so helplessly. But these were just seconds, meaningless and fleeting, not long enough for him to try and look at her with anything else than admiration. Oh, how jolly he loved her, how blind this love made him! Even when she asked for the ocean, he offered it to her, followed her to the ends of the world.

For his bones, she did not ask. She just took them when he had nothing left to give.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Preston Moray&Vera Moray]


	14. The Servant

Nothing but an orphan he was, pretty enough to catch a noble woman's eye and become her servant. Every order he would fullfil with dedication and gratitude, for what purpose other than pleasing her could his life possibly have?

At 5 o'clock he would serve the tea, in cup more expensive than his own soul. Once, he brought it too late for his mistress' taste.

The beating she gave him, it left him blind. He did not despair though, nor did he regret his sight, for oh, what the ocean showed him when he could not see the world anymore!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Original Characters
> 
> ...not to the bone, though:  
> 'Somewhere a noble woman is beating a servant. He is but a boy. The beating will leave him blind. He was late with the tea']


	15. The Dreamer

When she was a child, she heard a story of a noble girl, chosen by the god of deep ocean and old tales, a girl who shone as brigtly as his eyes were dark. And since then, she dreamt of becoming that girl, of being chosen like she was, ripped out of her life, granted with power of changing her own fate.  
Those dreams would never come true, but for a while she could almost feel as if they did - there was no god, though, only a woman with eyes all but black or empty. She loved her anyway, for she was the one to let her shine, to let her burn like the brightest, noonday sun. And to let her hear many more stories, soft songs of the ocean that echoed deep inside her bones.

She could never hear them anymore after that masked man destroyed everything she treasured.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Breanna Ashworth
> 
> Yeah, I know, DotO implies that it was Emily who saved the Empire, but screw this, it simply doesn't sit right with me - I only did one no-powers, non-lethal run for Em and all others for Corvo. It's not that I don't like the character, I actually do like her very much, it's just... Corvo's the Royal PROTECTOR here, okay?]


	16. The Seeker

A restless mind he had, restless and ruthless, cold like the icy ocean that witnessed his birth and bright like the aurora - the coin of his fate was tossed, but never fell, trapped between madness and greatness. And so trapped he remained, willing to escape this prison, to break every boundary created by either man or god. Oh, how desperate he was, as he kept trying to touch, to feel what lies beyond, to embrace the eternity, measure it and describe, how many hours he spent singing to the ocean who would never sing back, how many offerings he made to the silent deity, who would never accept them!

Years it took him to make peace with his own mind, and when he did, his life was only a faltering glimmer, a distant memory of once dreadful conflagration- but it was only then that the black-eyed one took interest in him.

Alas, it was too late for both of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Anton Sokolov]


	17. The Wanderer

She was barely nineteen when she found him on the beach, exhausted and bedraggled and scared and looking like nothing she could ever imagine. He had to be a god, she thought, a god of youth, with his hair like sun and moon, with eyes deeper and stranger than the Void itself, absolutely, perfectly beautiful to his very blood and bone.  
The ocean sang in a new, strange way, like wonder and like worship.  
She took him home, named him and comforted him and kept as a precious treasure, hidden away from the world. Everything she had, she gave him - her life, her body, her love, but it was not enough, it would never be enough, she knew, she was like this sunflower from an old tale, always aching for the sun she could not reach.

She began to grow old eventually, years crushing her like merciless waves, and he did not change a bit, so young and beautiful that it hurt to even look at him. And when her hair turned gray and her body crumbled, he left without goodbye.

The ocean missed him just as she did, wailing and roaring, but he never returned to neither of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Original Characters]


	18. The Broken

His dream was endless and nothing but cold and distant echo of fear, hundreds and thousands of slumbering years. Long enough for him to forget how sick and broken creature he once was, long enough to make the pain of his awakening nearly unberable.

He had to learn anew how to live inside of his own body, and not an easy lesson it was.  
But as he ran alongside the ocean, with his eye half-blind, scarred throat burning, crooked ribs aching with every breath, each step an agony for his crushed pelvis, broken spine and all other badly mended bones, as every inch of him screamed in pain, he laughed like he had never laughed before, with insolently childish joy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [The Outsider]


	19. The Siblings

She was everything he had, this little sister of his, and her presence was something inherent, as immanent as the river that lulled them both to sleep at night. And it made him endure all the ill winds, this comforting certainty that he felt every morning, as he kept waking up to the rising sun, whispering waves and his small girl, pressed tightly to his side.  
But she was too sweet and too loving and way too beautiful for her own good, and he was too weak to protect her, with only as much power as it took to kill the man who hurt his beloved one. They hanged him for that at bright dawn, his body thrown into the river.

Soon, she took the body of his sister as well, gently licking the blood from her skinny wrists, eating the flesh with teeth of little fish. And then she carried their bones to the ocean, for the wistful deep to keep them together, until the end of all songs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Original Characters
> 
> There's this old lullaby my grandmother used to sing to me when I was a child. It's sort of a typical 'old lullaby' stuff for all I know, meaning it's quite sad, known by approximately 20 people in the world and singing it to any child nowadays would probably be considered at least 'irresponsible', but... I've always found it somehow comforting, just like many other old songs and tales. So yeah, that's pretty much an inspiration for this one]


	20. The Beast

He was born with a still throat and a still heart, a mute child with smile like the burning sun, high above his homeland. Dazzling enough a grin for people to think him brave when he was ruthless, fiery when he was ferocious, for his mother to caress him like a fine little bird instead of a numb beast in human flesh. Oh, what a sight he was, with his sword like a streak of moonlight in his hands and this breathtaking smile on his face, a slumbering horror, hidden beneath a beautiful mask! It remained meek, though, as long as it was provided food and warmth, allowing tenderness and cuddles like a wolfhound accepts fondling from those who fodder him.

The beast broke free eventually, and the whole world watched with dread and disgust as it painted the streets red, always with this silent, joyful grin. And as its bones soaked with blood, as it broke the last boundary, as it tore its own child apart, drunk with death and fear - it was only then that it became truly beautiful, after its cruel heart burnt to ashes and only cold, blank ocean remained, crooning softly inside its empty chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [High Chaos Corvo Attano
> 
> Personally, I consider low chaos endings the 'canon' ones in both Dishonored 1&2, and it's the low chaos gameplay that I choose in nearly all my playthroughs, but I kind of enjoyed playing high chaos Corvo, especially in DH1 - I mean, I liked to think him just a mute, half-mad horror, who didn't really care about the whole 'saving Empire' thing, as long as he had a bunch of people to slaughter.
> 
> And yeah, Emily always dies in my high chaos runs. If you're to be evil, be evil to the bone, that's what I say.]


	21. The Gravedigger

Such an ugly, broken creature he was, malformed even in his mother's womb, abandoned and riddiculed since early childhood. They thought him to be something only a little bit more than an animal, close to beasts of the deep that could sometimes be found on the shore, as if they were too twisted even for the ocean to accept them, as if he rejected his own offspring, disgusted.

He desired to be welcome with all of his heart, he seeked acceptation in strangest of places, until he found it among the dead, those abandoned and forgotten just like he was himself. He became a gravedigger, with those he burried his only family, his only friends, providing him some sense of safety, even if this company was small and the world was many. And then, the world started to become less and less, as the plague began to bring him more companions than he could ever dream of. He felt like it was some god who answered his prayers, so he began feeding the rats, letting the weepers free, poisoning the wells with sickness - and for his efforts, the plague rewarded him generously.

So generously that it let him become one with his family mercifully, by taking him in his sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Original Characters]


	22. The Sunken

Once, there were a boy and a girl, who loved each other sweetly, like siblings rather than lovers, and they lived happily until the nameless sadness came and broke the boy's heart. The girl took what remained of him, she collected each and every single one of his bones and hid them in a casket, carved from the leviathan's skull.

When her time came, she died, but before she did, she gave birth to a child, beautiful boy with eyes like the ocean himself. The Void liked the color, but they became nothing but black when he looked into it, and they were nothing but black when it embraced him.


	23. The Noble

The entire world seemed to be a beauteous plaything, created simply for her pleasure. Every subtle, delicate element had its function - handsome boys to entertain her, pretty women to admire her, beggars and cripples to accept her help, sun to paint her bedroom golden every morning, moon to let her dance all night. Such a perfect mechanism it was, with her always in the heart of it, watching it dancing and clicking all around her!  
Sometimes though, she felt a little bit bored with its faultless predictability, her heart aching for something more than she could express with words. It was why she loved the masked balls so much, for the thrill of mystery they brought her - or she had loved them, until that very last one, that uncanny nightmare of a masquerade. Since the sunset she could feel something odd in the air, like salt and like humming, and she couldn't help the shiver that settled in her bones.

She shivered even more when she woke up, only to find herself in a boat, with the man she rejected long before - but it was not him that made her tremble, nor the darkness or fear of what might come.

It was the ocean, that sang and swayed and dreamt endlessly, and did not care about her more than he cared about the smallest grain of sand in his deep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Waverly Boyle]


	24. The Forgotten

They believed in the ocean, believed, that he commanded the great leviathans to carry them on their backs through the cold, drowsy waters on the edge of all things, to carry them somewhere they could live. They believed that he gave them their bones, beautiful and everlasting, so that they could build a home, an empire that would remain unchanged forever. They believed that he fed the fish with their sacred blood, to provide them food. And they worshipped the ocean, and they worshipped the great whales, in temples built from ribs and skulls the waves were bringing them.

As time passed, their empire grew and their faith turned into doubt - for the bones of the dead leviathans they found on the shores, they were beautiful, but the bones of ones they killed themselves, those taken with force and cruelty, were powerful. And how could one choose beauty over might?

The humming and singing of the ivory runes they carved was loud, so very loud that it awoke the slumbering beast of the deep, the wrath of the ocean. And soon, this humming and singing and bones marked with a name long forgotten, became all that was left of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [There's this small piece of a story the Outsider gives Corvo in the first game:  
> 'A thousand years ago, there was another city on this spot. The people carved the bones of whales into runes and inscribed them with my Mark. Children still find them washed up in the river mud.'  
> It kind of got stuck in my head, guess I'm just really into old, half-forgotten things, no matter if we're speaking of reality or fantasy.
> 
> And about the beast of the deep: https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/disp/43507a50348625.58ceb1925e067.jpg
> 
> I mean, everybody loves sea monsters, right?]


	25. The Ghost

The river seemed idle and dull at first, but the more she listened to her gentle whispers, the more uncanny it felt, the more charm and strange beauty she could sense, and with time, she began to understand the old boatsman's love for the muddy waves.  
Once, she was wakened at bright dawn by an eerie song, coming from the riverside. When she ran down to the water, she found a piece of carved bone, just like those her father used to carry in his coat. 'For luck', he told her.  
She hid the bone under her pillow, not minding the bizarre dreams it brought her, not until this last one, after which she gave it to her father. She saw a boy in it, not much older than she was, though his smile was all teeth and fangs and his eyes were black and empty, like the night sky between the stars. An odd sight he was, but what made her truly terrified was the way he looked at her. Nightmarish hunger, reminding her of men she saw in the brothel, yet much deeper and darker, as if he was a starving sighthound aching for the hunt, for warmth, and for blood, and for a beating heart, burning thirst, with a touch of some painful sadness and wonder in it, and she woke up trembling, bone under her pillow calling her with soft singing.

Long time passed before she stopped fearing this nightmare, even longer before she understood it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Emily Kaldwin&The Outsider
> 
> 'I don't like your eyes. Why are they so black? Stop looking at me!'
> 
> I've just realised, I somehow manage to be simultaneously totally for and totally against Emsider.
> 
> Oh, well.]


	26. The Stubborn

A tough one she was, an unwanted orphan too foolish to let herself die, and yet stubborn enough to survive on the streets among other little rats of her kind. They were fast, so she was faster, they were smart, so she was smarter, fighting for every scrap of food with teeth and claws, eyes burning with desperate need of staying alive. The world showed her no mercy, but she didn't mind, truly, no matter how hard it seemed to be trying it could not break her, such a strong thing her will was. 

Two times only she showed weakness - the first, when she trusted a man who wasn't worthy of this trust, the second, when she gave birth to a child and failed to kill it before it managed to take it's first breath. She raised him instead, and loved him very fondly, with all gentleness and kindness she kept hidden away from the world in the heart-shaped box, deep inside her chest.

Long after the boy left, the ocean told her a story of a monster he had become.

What kicks and stones could not do, the quiet, mellow waves did, with nothing more than a soft whisper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Original Characters]


	27. The Believer

It was one of the first things she could remember, lying in bed with her mother and listening to her soft voice, telling her stories about the black-eyed one, who walked in the darkness and protected those who worshiped him. Her words were slowly becoming quieter, nothing more than a sough, as if it was the ocean himself singing an old tale, a warm blanket that made her sleep peacefully and fear the dark no more.  
She put her trust in her mother's yarns- she built a shrine, just as she told her, learned all the spells and entreaties, and when the old woman died, she carefully carved a rune from her bones. It sang to her, like her mother used to, and even though the song was distant and cold, it was the only solace she had left.

Once only she saw the Leviathan, just before her death. The flames began to lick her body, they danced on the iron masks, on the wet cobblestones, even the sky was reddened by them, and only his eyes were empty, indifferent and aloof.

But they were black indeed, that alone appeared to be true, as black, as the ocean was deep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Original Characters]


	28. The Neglected

She was only loved for who the others saw in her, not for the person she was. And so, her mother loved her for being the living image of her father, all hers and ever present by her side. Her father loved her for grace and charm, that made her so similar to the darling, little treasure his younger daughter was to him. Even her sister, this sweet, gentle thing, could only hold her dear for how much she reminded her of her dear friend, who died so long ago. It was a kind of curse, a hard thruth she understood way too early, and it poisoned her heart with bitterness and sick ambition. She tried her best to become worthy of affection, and she kept failing time after time, every defeat leaving her more starved for appreciation.

She was so desperate, that when the black-eyed one took interest in her, she chose to belive that he did it because he thought her special, she chose not to see the disappointment that grew in him with every visit he paid her.

One night, the ocean sang her a story of a girl he once knew, who used to be so much like her and yet was more and was better in every possible way - more fascinating, more endearing, more graceful, and oh, how much more treasured by the one who marked them both.

It was then that her heart broke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Delilah Copperspoon]


	29. The Engraver

He was truly a man of faith, with his world built on firm, safe pillars of the belief he shared with his brothers. Every stricture he obeyed, every ritual he performed, every heresy he extinguished made him more devout, his mouth full of prayers and his hands full of deeds, keeping his soul safe from harm.  
He was patroling the streets alone when he heard the calling, his name whispered softly by the wind, echoing in the laughter of swarming rats, a pull in his bones and an itch in his blood. The shrine was old and forlorn, purple fabrics rotten and dark, salty wood so fragile, that it turned into ash under the tips of his fingers, but the piece of carved bone was still white, still alive and just as solid as the metal of his mask and marble of his temple. He took the rune, intending to burn it in the purifying fire, but its singing and cooing and the stories it told him, they were so pretty, that he kept it hidden in his pocket, taking it out at night to look at it and listen to its humms.

The first bones he collected, of a little bird whose neck he snapped, were too small and too brittle, the power of the carvings he made corrupted them, and they crushed into tiny, sharp slivers, black and twisted. Bones of the rats were tougher, but too stubborn, too dogged, the runes engraved on them appeared to be weak and wayward. He needed better, he needed more, more beautiful, white bones, so he killed his beautiful, white wolfhound and made a charm, a strong, trustworthy one - but his brothers found it, this and all the others, good and bad, and it was enough for them to lock him up and to take his beloved runes away.

It didn't matter though, for by then he knew their songs by heart, enough to carve one on each of his own bones with a small knife he smuggled into his cell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Original Characters]


	30. The Forgiven

He did not trust the priests in iron masks, but he believed in what they said, he believed that the black-eyed one brought corruption to the world and poisoned men's hearts with sickness and putridity. He heard the stories of his mother, he saw atrocious rituals, performed to gain his favor, he knew people driven mad by his presence. A widow, who killed her baby child and carved a song on its bones. A boy, who fed his own flesh to the ocean, bit by bit, until he died, armless and legless, mumbling strange words that sounded even stranger in his mouth with no tongue. An old fisherman, sleeping in a corpse of a dead whale, his skin damaged by its rotting body and falling off of his bones. He never doubted that it was this squalid god to befoul the world and it was his accursed gift, that forced him to kill for coin and for pleasure alike, with no second thoughts, at least not until that great, bold murder, that he was meant to be remembered for. He feared for his life after that, he feared the rage of the young man whose life he destroyed, and who was endowed by the black-eyed one more generously, than he was himself - and a gift so lavish had to addle him, he thought, twist him into a numb, bloodthirsty beast.

But the rage never came. They caught the man, they imprisoned him in their hideout, and he just disappeared, not hurting a single one of them, leaving them with nothing more than a slight headache.

He had no hatred in his heart and seeked no revenge, but the mercy he showed was more cruel than his wrath could have been.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Daud&Corvo Attano
> 
> So, ever since I played Dishonored for the first time, I've had this ridiculous vision of Corvo postponing this whole 'save the Empire, rescue Emily' thing and just having time of his life in Flooded District, like leaving unconscious Whalers in really strange places and really embarrassing positions, drawing stupid stuff on their faces, stealing everything in sight and writing bullshit on the walls.
> 
> Honestly, I don't really care what the lore says, that's canon for me]


End file.
